He was too strong as a kid and Lolita Lollar had to watch him closely. Horseplay with his friends in College Station, Texas, could be dangerous if his mother didn't pull in the reigns someone was bound to get hurt, and that someone was not going to beJ.J. Lollar.

People joked one day he would be a heck of a football player. Given the strength of an ox on a child's level, J.J. was a natural in the trenches as a peewee and junior high player. But those junior high stars tend to level out out as everyone catches up to them in their teenage years and J.J.'s mother didn't know what to think about his early success as a man among boys.

"He's always been a bull," Lolita said. "It was always difficult with him growing up because he was always so much stronger and a lot bigger than most of the other kids. So even playing around you're like, 'You can't play like that. They push you and you don't even move. You push them and they fall down.'

"It was a lot for him to grow up being the size and the weight that he was growing up. And the strength. He was just solid."

But if you've ever met J.J. you know he's a gentle giant. He's a good guy who you would be proud to share your Texas Tech degree with even if he wasn't a football player. You just get this idea he's going to do special things off the field regardless of what happens these next four or five years on the field.

You might say he was raised right. In a 10-minute conversation with Lolita, that definitely seems to be the case.